Excluded for wanting homework: Pupil led mass walkout at failing school put in special measures by Ofsted

Textbook protest: Aaron Parfitt and his friends said Bispham High School is not doing enough for them (Picture: Mercury Media)

The threat of extra homework is enough to make most schoolboys behave.

But one teenager was so frustrated at the lack of it, he walked out of his lesson in protest.

Aaron Parfitt, 14, said the demonstration was completely spontaneous and was amazed when about 100 of his classmates joined him in solidarity.

‘I was really worried because I just wanted to make sure I was able to do the work properly,’ he said.

‘We’ve had loads of different teachers and we weren’t getting enough homework so I decided to call the council and Ofsted to see if they would help me but they couldn’t.

‘I got fed up in the end so I held a protest with some friends and we walked out on to the field. Then loads more people started to follow me.

‘There must have been around 100 people with me in the end and everyone sent me messages afterwards saying well done.’

Staff at Bispham High School in Blackpool were unsympathetic and suspended Aaron for three days. His furious mother Janet, 52, said: ‘He was sticking up for himself and his mates and he gets told to stay away from the school’.

The protest comes a year after the school was placed in special measures by Ofsted for its ‘mediocre teaching’ and ‘low standards’.

A return monitoring visit by inspectors in September found that it was making ‘reasonable progress’.

But acting head teacher Deborah Hanlon-Catlow admitted the school was going through a ‘challenging time’.

‘We continue to work with Ofsted, staff, parents, pupils and all other stakeholders towards gradual improvement.’

Aaron is returning to school today after he agreed not to hold any more protests.